SUBSIDIARITY AND GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY

First of all we’d like to say that we are pleased to confirm our first thousand registrations on Scotland Decides. It has taken longer than expected and we need many more before we can release the app. But we are making progress nonetheless.

It is an opportune time to remind everybody that voting relates to local as well as national issues and votes can be held for local matters using the ID alone. It is not voting which is the problem, it’s where the votes go and how they gain authority. Respect Scottish Sovereignty (RSS) have, through the work of individual members, an enviable track record in carrying out local actions such as the Skye bridge campaign but such campaigns require a very substantial amount of work with no guarantee of success at the outset. There is no set route via legislation that would allow a simpler and more effective process to establish authority at local level.

Evidence is apparent, however, that community councils are increasingly inclined to take action:

Polly Jones on behalf of Helensburgh Community Council shared an update on Stop the supermarket on Helensburgh's waterfront Check it out and leave a comment:

PETITION UPDATE

We're taking Argyll and Bute Council to court over their plans to build a supermarket

Dear Supporter

It has been six months since we last contacted you about our campaign to stop Argyll and Bute Council putting a supermarket on Helensburgh's much-valued waterfront - and we are still fighting to stop it.

With your help, we have reached an incredible 5000 signatures, with online and paper signatories combined.

Thank you for all your support.

But then we have this:

Since we last got in touch, Helensburgh Community Council has continued to try and meet with Council leader Jim Lynch to raise our concerns directly and find a mutually agreeable solution. We have written on a number of occasions and even travelled to Argyll and Bute Council's headquarters in Lochgilphead - but with no success. All our requests to meet have been denied.

On 4th July, we are taking Argyll and Bute Council to court over its plans to build a supermarket on our waterfront.

Helensburgh Community Council has not come to this decision lightly, but the strength of community concern and opposition needs to be heard by Argyll and Bute Council. By stopping the supermarket development now we could prevent Argyll and Bute Council entering a time consuming and expensive planning process.

There will be a judicial review into Argyll and Bute Council's decision to develop a supermarket on 4th July.

On 4th July, the Court of Session in Edinburgh will hear a judicial review about whether Argyll and Bute Council's public consultation to make this decision was good enough. We hope the court will find that the process, including consulting a mere 83 people, does not meet the standard required of a public consultation. 

If the judicial review is successful, we expect Argyll and Bute Council will have to re-run the process to choose the plans for the waterfront, including a genuine public consultation. This could stop the supermarket development in its tracks.

Now we need your help to cover the legal costs.

We have saved money by representing ourselves in the early legal stages, and sought out the most affordable legal support we can. Now we need to fundraise for court fees and a contribution to the legal fees. We estimate this could be as much as £30,000, on top of the £8,670 that we previously raised.  

Since the passing of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act local democracy has been a mess and little seems to have been done to clarify the rights and means that community councils have in pursuing these matters, in particular where there is substantial support from the public. The update published recently (by a private company doing what the government should be doing themselves) continues to demonstrate confusion and the lack of joined-up thinking. Notice, for example, the way that any talk of finance is ditched on the premise that the consultees could not agree. It is simply not acceptable that one of the primary issues facing what should be the entry level for democracy should be ignored rather than investigated in depth as it needs to be

Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015: update and findings report

In other cases we see a bewildering display of differing initiatives, methodology and outcomes.

Another initiative, this time originating from within the Highland Council itself and attracting a large degree of popular interest but it represents the concerns of this area alone and cannot take into account popular resistance to these energy infrastructure projects which manifests itself across the country.

Elsewhere we see local action groups having no engagement with their community councils, some councils even turning their backs on local action groups while others have engaged quite successfully with their local authorities. In short, it's all a bit of a mess and the main casualty is true local democracy. As we see from the Helensburgh case above and Kilfinnan, obdurate refusal on the part of the local authority leaves legal action the only route and that can only be paid for by raising money from the public - a kind of voluntary taxation if you like.

Community councils came into being following local government reorganisation in 1973 and, for forty years remained largely invisible. The Community Empowerment Act was passed in 2015 and in the following ten years no real improvement has taken place and the update seems to show that the authorities are quite happy with this state of affairs. Maybe the more active councils will give their district councils and the government a bloody nose.

Real reform is needed, however, if we are to create an effective grassroots democracy and, as so often, the start of the process is money.

While the 1973 reorganisation produced community councils in Scotland, in England it produced the parish council. Parish councils have top-down funding but they also have standing orders. In effect they can only do what the law says they can do and nothing else. In Scotland, community councils can do what they like (read the guidance rules if you don't believe it) but they get very little money. Having examined cases in Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and the United States a very different picture emerges. Here we see local taxation and bottom-up funding with the larger authorities obtaining much of their funding through contributions agreed from the local community associations. In such a system, local requirements are discharged and regional obligations contributed to according to ability. In this system also local action groups can be accommodated through a process of temporary co-option - a system which already exists in principle if not in practice.

We call this Subsidiarity and we are working on an extensive research and proposal alongside collaborators such as Commonweal and others with the aim of reforming the Community Empowerment Act to produce true grassroots democracy.

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If you are not already supporting us, please consider registering. We have voting facilities for local campaigns in place and can help with publicity as well as the voting process. It doesn't cost much and is verifiable at every level. Help us build local and national democracy.